The launch date of the Europa Clipper probe to study Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons whose icy surface hides a vast ocean, is now in question. The mission is considered NASA’s most expensive and ambitious planetary exploration, costing $4.25 billion.

The fact is that, while testing the MOSFETs (MOSFETs) needed to regulate the voltage of the Europa Clipper, engineers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) discovered that these parts could not withstand even low doses of radiation, while the region around Jupiter has the most intense radiation environment on Earth and in the entire solar system.

Now experts are rushing to determine how many transistors won’t survive the harsh conditions of space and how long it will take to replace them.

The problem is that the Europa Clipper launch to Jupiter’s icy moon is scheduled for October 10, 2024. If it doesn’t happen in the allotted time, the next launch windows will only open in 2025 and 2026. At most, then the probe will have to perform an additional gravitational maneuver around the Earth, which will increase the time it takes for the device to reach Europa and incur additional costs.